Grandparent
Grandparents are the parents of a person's father or mother – paternal or maternal. Every sexually-reproducing living organism who is not a genetic chimera has a maximum of four genetic grandparents, eight genetic great-grandparents, sixteen genetic great-great-grandparents, thirty-two genetic great-great-great-grandparents, etc. In the history of modern humanity, around 30,000 years ago, the number of modern humans who lived to be a grandparent increased.[citation needed] It is not known for certain what spurred this increase in longevity but largely results in the improved medical technology and living standard,1 but it is generally believed that a key consequence of three generations being alive together was the preservation of information which could otherwise have been lost; an example of this important information might have been where to find water in times of drought.23 In cases where parents are unwilling or unable to provide adequate care for their children (e.g., death of the parents, financial obstacles, marriage problems4), grandparents often take on the role of primary caregivers. Even when this is not the case, and particularly in traditional cultures, grandparents often have a direct and clear role in relation to the raising, care and nurture of children. Grandparents are second-degree relatives and share 25% genetic overlap. A step-grandparent can be the step-parent of the parent or the step-parent's parent or the step-parent's step-parent (though technically this might be called a step-step-grandparent). The various words for grandparents at times may also be used to refer to any elderly person, especially the terms gramps, granny, grandfather, grandmother, nan, maw-maw, paw-paw and others which families make up themselves. Titles When used as a noun (e.g., "... a grandparent walked by"), grandfather and grandmother are usually used, although forms such as grandma/grandpa, granny/granddaddy or even nan/pop are sometimes used. When preceded by "my ..." (e.g., "... my grandpa walked by"), all forms are common (anywhere from "... my grandfather ..." to "... my Gramps ..."). All forms can be used in plural, but Gramps (plural Gramps) is rare. In writing, Grandfather and Grandmother are most common, but very rare as a form of address. In speech, Grandpa and Grandma are commonly used in the United States, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom. In Britain, Ireland, United States, Australia, New Zealand and, particularly prevalent in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Nan, Nana, Nanna, Nanny, Gran and Granny and other variations are often used for grandmother in both writing and speech. In many parts of India, maternal grandparents are called Nana and Nani. Similarly, paternal grandparents are called Dada and Dadi. One's parents' maternal grandparents are called Par-nani and Par-nana. On similar lines, parents' paternal grandparents are called Par-dadi and Par-dada. Numerous other variants exist, such as Gramp, Gramps, Grampa, Grandpap, Granda, Grampy, Granddad, Grandad, Granddaddy, Grandpappy, Pop(s), Pap, Pappy, and Pawpaw for grandfather; Grandmom, Grandmama, Grama, Granny, Gran, Nanny, Nan, Mammaw and Grammy for grandmother. Gogo can be used for either, etc. Given that people may have two living sets of grandparents, some confusion arises from calling two people "grandma" or "grandpa", so often two of the other terms listed above are used for one set of grandparents. Another common solution is to call grandparents by their first names ("Grandpa George", "Grandma Anne", etc.) or by their family names ("Grandpa Jones", "Grandma Smith"). In North America, many families call one set of grandparents by their ethnic names (e.g., Hispanic grandparents might be called abuelo and abuela or "abuelito" and "abuelita", French grandparents might be called papi and mamie, Italian grandparents might be called nonno and nonna, or Dutch and German grandparents might be called Opa and Oma. In Flanders pepee or petje and memee or metje are most used). In Friesland, a common pair is pake and beppe. Mandarin-speaking Chinese Americans refer to maternal grandparents as wài pó (外婆) and wài gōng (外公) and paternal grandparents as nǎi nǎi (奶奶) and yé yé (爷爷). In the Philippines, grandparents are called lolo (grandfather) and lola (grandmother), respectively. Languages and cultures with more specific kinship terminology than English may distinguish between paternal grandparents and maternal grandparents. For example, in the Swedish language there is no single word for "grandmother"; the mother's mother is termed mormor and the father's mother is termed farmor.5 However, the other Scandinavian languages, Danish and Norwegian, use words which specifies the kinship like in Swedish (identically spelled among all three languages), as well as using common terms similar to grandmother (Danish: bedstemor, Norwegian: bestemor). Great-grandparents and beyond The parents of a grandparent, or the grandparents of a parent, are called the same names as grandparents (grandfather/-mother, grandpa/-ma, granddad/-ma, etc.) with the prefix ''great-'' added, with an additional ''great-'' added for each additional generation. One's great-grandparent's parents would be "great-great-grandparents". To avoid a proliferation of "greats" when discussing genealogical trees, one may also use ordinals instead of multiple "greats"; thus a "great-great-grandfather" would be the "second great-grandfather", and a "great-great-great-grandfather" would be a third great-grandfather, and so on. This system is used by some genealogical websites such as Geni.6 One may also use cardinal numbers for numbering greats, for example, great-great-great-grandmother becomes 3×-great-grandmother. Individuals who share the same great-grandparents but are not siblings or first cousins are called "second cousins" to each other, as second cousins have grandparents who are siblings. Similarly, "third cousins" would have great-grandparents who are siblings. Variation of terms of great-grandparents * maternal great-grandmother - number one: maternal grandmother's mother. * maternal great-grandfather - number one: maternal grandmother's father. * maternal great-grandmother - number two: maternal grandfather's mother. * maternal great-grandfather - number two: maternal grandfather's father. * paternal great-grandmother - number one: paternal grandmother's mother. * paternal great-grandfather - number one: paternal grandmother's father. * paternal great-grandmother - number two: paternal grandfather's mother. * paternal great-grandfather - number two: paternal grandfather's father. Variation of terms of great-great-grandparents * maternal great-great-grandmother - number one: maternal grandmother's maternal grandmother. * maternal great-great-grandfather - number one: maternal grandmother's maternal grandfather. * maternal great-great-grandmother - number two: maternal grandmother's paternal grandmother. * maternal great-great-grandfather - number two: maternal grandmother's paternal grandfather. * maternal great-great-grandmother - number three: maternal grandfather's maternal grandmother. * maternal great-great-grandfather - number three: maternal grandfather's maternal grandfather. * maternal great-great-grandmother - number four: maternal grandfather's paternal grandmother. * maternal great-great-grandfather - number four: maternal grandfather's paternal grandfather. * paternal great-great-grandmother - number one: paternal grandmother's maternal grandmother. * paternal great-great-grandfather - number one: paternal grandmother's maternal grandfather. * paternal great-great-grandmother - number two: paternal grandmother's paternal grandmother. * paternal great-great-grandfather - number two: paternal grandmother's paternal grandfather. * paternal great-great-grandmother - number three: paternal grandfather's maternal grandmother. * paternal great-great-grandfather - number three: paternal grandfather's maternal grandfather. * paternal great-great-grandmother - number four: paternal grandfather's paternal grandmother. * paternal great-great-grandfather - number four: paternal grandfather's paternal grandfather. Age of grandparent by country Many of the countries listed in the table below are in the process of starting age by mothers, fathers, grandparents and great-grandparents (see the notes in the table for details) More grandparents became at age 52-58 (e.g. in Romania grandma/grandpa born in 1945 and their grandchild born in 2003 at age 58; those born in 1949 and their grandchild born in 2006 at age 57; those born in 1953 and their grandchild born in 2009 at age 56; those born in 1957 and their grandchild born in 2012 at age 55; those born in 1961 and their grandchild born in 2015 at age 54; those born in 1965 and their grandchild born in 2018 at age 53; those born in 1969 and their grandchild will born in 2021 at age 52).